The American Postal Worker Union is launching a national ad buy that will appear on NBC Nightly News, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, designed to raise awareness about the easy solution to the current funding problems that the United States Postal Service is facing. As previously reported, there is literally no legitimate reason for the funding shortfall. Conservatives in Congress and elsewhere are purposefully trying to hurt the Postal Service so they can privatize it:

The problem lies elsewhere: the 2006 congressional mandate that the USPS pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years, and do so within a decade, an obligation no other public agency or private firm faces. The roughly $5.5 billion annual payments since 2007 — $21 billion total — are the difference between a positive and negative ledger.

APWU is not taking the assault on their livelihood lightly, they are going on the offensive to let the American public know the reality behind what is being done to undercut the USPS.

Says APWU President Cliff Guffey:

"The ads are intended to build public awareness and support for congressional efforts to resolve the Postal Service’s financial crisis without cutting pay, reducing benefits, eliminating collective bargaining rights or slashing service."

On the congressional front, APWU supports a package of amendments to the 21st Century Postal Service Act (S. 1789) that would prevent the closures and other service cutbacks. The bill is expected to come up for a vote in the Senate soon.

AWPU members can take action to support the campaign. Others can call 202-224-3121 and tell their senators to support the amendments that would stop layoffs and office closures.

You mean, the paper that broke the Whitewater "story"? Or the wonderful Judy Miller coverage that got us into the Iraq war? I'm surprised that any C&L reader would think that the Times can be accepted without question.